TELUS investing $4 million in Creston in 2014

— Photo courtesy Town of Creston.

TELUS is investing $4 million in Creston this year to connect more than 90 per cent of homes and businesses in the area directly to fibre optic cables. This significant investment from TELUS comes at no cost to the municipality or its residents, and will radically increase Internet speeds and provide access to TELUS’ Optik TV.

“This significant $4 million investment to connect homes and businesses to the fastest Internet infrastructure available in the world today will dramatically enhance the Internet speeds available to homes and businesses here in Creston,” said Steven Jenkins, TELUS general manager for the Southern Interior. “By enabling small and medium sized businesses to operate here in Creston while competing globally, we’re helping keep people and their businesses here at home, where they want to be.

Furthermore, organizations will be able to innovate how they deliver services such as health care and education, which will have a positive, lasting impact on all of us in Creston.”

TELUS’ significant investment in fibre optic cables will benefit Creston residents and businesses by:

• Offering residential and business customers Internet speeds up to 100 megabits per second
• Offering Optik TV to more local homes
• Updating older infrastructure and technology to enhance network reliability
• Providing access to innovative healthcare IT solutions

TELUS crews have been in the area working over the past number of months connecting with interested home and business owners and have started installing new fibre optic cables to replace existing copper lines. TELUS anticipates completing the build by the end of this year, meaning businesses and residents will begin to take advantage of this technology in the coming months.

In addition to TELUS’ significant investment to connect homes and businesses directly to fibre optic cables, TELUS is installing new wireless sites in Creston to enhance wireless capacity by filling in coverage gaps, and expand the reach of the world’s fastest wireless technology, 4G LTE.

This significant investment is part of TELUS’ commitment to invest $2.8 billion in B.C. from 2014 through 2016. By the end of 2016, TELUS’ investment in operations and infrastructure across the province since

2000 will exceed $40 billion. Also, since 2000 TELUS has paid income, payroll, property, sales and other taxes totalling more than $3.2 billion to provincial and municipal governments in B.C., helping to support services in communities across the province.